Q.Classify the antibiotics based on their action on bacteria.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Based on how they act on bacteria, antibiotics fall into two classes: bactericidal drugs, which actively kill the bacteria, and bacteriostatic drugs, which merely halt bacterial growth, leaving the immune system to finish the job.
Antibiotics are chemical substances produced by (or derived from) microorganisms that, in small amounts, inhibit or destroy other disease-causing microorganisms, and they can be classified according to their precise action on target bacteria. Bactericidal antibiotics act by directly killing the bacterial cells -- for example, by disrupting bacterial cell-wall synthesis or damaging the cell membrane -- and cause bacterial cell death outright; well-known examples include Penicillin (which blocks cell-wall formation), Streptomycin, other aminoglycosides, and Cephalosporins. Bacteriostatic antibiotics, in contrast, do not kill bacteria directly but instead inhibit essential bacterial processes such as protein synthesis, arresting their growth and multiplication; with bacterial reproduction halted, the host's own immune system (phagocytes, antibodies) is then able to locate and eliminate the existing, non-multiplying bacterial population …
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